On paper it was not looking good for Sri Lanka yesterday going into their one-day match with India.
They were missing the explosive presence of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya's invaluable experience at the top.
There was no Mahela Jayawardene or Chamara Silva to hold together the middle overs.
One of their batsmen was making his debut (Lahiru Thirimanne) and five others had played just 18 one-day games between them.
All those statistics, however, mattered little last night as "Test specialist" Thilan Samaraweera stood like the proverbial rock to guide them to a comfortable five-wicket win over India in the second match of the Tri Nations tournament in Bangladesh with an inspired unbeaten hundred.
Joining his captain Kumar Sangakkara at the crease with Sri Lanka 77 for two in the 16th over, Samaraweera (105 not out) and his senior pro put their long international experience to good use, milking the Indian attack without any show of force or indulgence.
They added 122 runs in 22.4 overs to set the stage for Thissara Perera's (36 not out off 15 balls) fireworks later that saw Sri Lanka pass their target of 280 with 12 balls to spare.
Samaraweera, one of Test cricket's top batsmen with an average in the 50s, has appeared in just 30 ODIs in a career that began with a Test century on debut against India in 2001.
Better known as the one to be hit by a bullet in the militants attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Pakistan last year, the 33-year-old showed his ability in the shorter version of the game with an innings that never looked to be leaving the lower gears, yet came at virtually a run-a-ball.
Samaraweera's calm presence took the pressure off Sangakkara, who had watched Upul Tharanga - the only other Lankan in yesterday's XI with more than 35 one-dayers in his career - depart very early in his innings, offering a tame return catch to Harbhajan Singh.
With Samaraweera running well and rotating the strike, Sangakkara got those much-needed boundaries that kept Sri Lanka on par with the asking rate.
Disaster, however, struck in the 37th over when Sangakkara hit Harbhajan Singh straight to Suresh Raina at mid-off.
The Sri Lankan was cursing himself as he left the ground, but the smile was back as Samaraweera carried on the battle and stayed till the end, crossing three-figures for the second time in ODIs along the way.
Credit for Sri Lanka's second win of the tournament should also go to Chanaka Welegedara. The left-arm seamer, playing just his sixth ODI, recovered from an early Virender Sehwag lashing to finish with the first five-for of his career, which restricted India from getting more.
Bowling straight and into the toes, Welegedara castled three of his victims to crush India's dream of crossing 300, which looked a distinct possibility when Sehwag was at the crease.
India had raced to fifty in the seventh over and Sehwag blazed his way to 47 from just 30 balls before being foxed by a slower delivery from Welegedara.
Sehwag was the Sri Lankan's third victim; he had earlier sneaked a yorker underneath Gautam Gambhir's bat and got Virat Kohli to edge behind the stumps. With the top three down and India 71 for three in the ninth over, scoring slowed.
Just 13 runs came from the five overs after the first Powerplay as Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh set about rebuilding the innings. The duo added 99 runs for the fourth wicket, before the Indian captain departed. But Yuvraj stayed on, top-scoring with 74 and, aided by late cameos from Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja, helped India post 279 for nine.
That, however, proved inadequate in the end thanks to Samaraweera.
Meanwhile, Sudeep Tyagi has been named in India's 16-man squad for the two-Test series against Bangladesh later this month.
The 22-year-old seamer rose to prominence with strong performances for the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.
He made his one-day international debut in the abandoned one-dayer against Sri Lanka at the Feroz Shah Kotla last month.
In the only other change, selectors have dropped Subramaniam Badrinath and have recalled wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik.
The first Test against Bangladesh is scheduled to begin in Chittagong on January 17, while the second would be played in Dhaka from January 24.
arizvi@thenational.ae
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The five pillars of Islam
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions